Katey Dickens was born into a house of turbulent celebrity and grew up surrounded by fascinating, famous, and infamous people. From a very young age, she knew her vocation was to be an artist.
Lucinda Hawksley charts the life of a celebrated portrait painter, who redefines our preconceptions about Victorian women. Living to be almost ninety, Katey survived an unconventional marriage, love affairs, heartbreak, depression, and the challenges of being a female artist in a male-dominated era.
Compelling and illuminating, Katey tells the story of a spirited woman who found fame at the centre of the first celebrity phenomenon; it also uncovers the reality of what it was like to be a child of Charles and Catherine Dickens. This biography of Katey, celebrating her artistic prestige – which saw her compared to Millais – is long overdue. The details of her fascinating life await rediscovery.